Metric Property Investments, the UK retail specialist REIT, has acquired three shops for £14m in total.
The Metric Income Plus Limited Partnership, Metric’s £150m joint venture with Universities Superannuation Scheme, has bought a 48,500 sq ft B&Q store in Camborne, Cornwall, from a private property company for £8.2m – a 7.3% net initial yield.
B&Q pays an average rent of £13 per sq ft and has an unexpired lease term of 15.7 years.
The transaction brings MIPP’s total investment to £59.5m in six schemes, yielding 7.3%. Rents across the portfolio average £14.80 per sq ft with an average unexpired lease term of 17.3 years. The portfolio is 100% occupied.
Metric has also acquired two prime high street shops on Midland Road, Bedford, from the receivers to a private property company for £5.7m – a 7% net initial yield. They total 36,000 sq ft and were let to Next and Iceland in November 2011 off average rents of £22 per sq ft on lease terms of 10 and 15 years, respectively.
Metric has invested £242m across 24 schemes with rents averaging £13.50 per sq ft. Occupancy across the investment portfolio is 97.7% with an unexpired lease term of 11.8 years.
Andrew Jones, chief executive of Metric, said: “We are continuing to leverage our occupier relationships and considerable financial resources to take advantage of market uncertainty to acquire good-quality, well-let real estate at attractive rents. We remain committed to further opportunistic purchases and to growing our income portfolio within our MIPP joint venture to deliver post-leverage double-digit returns.”
Jones Lang LaSalle advised Metric on Bedford.
annabel.dixon@estatesgazette.com
